Zero wins and fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship – Ferrari’s 2024 Formula 1 season ended in profound disappointment. The Scuderia failed to win a single Grand Prix, and could only manage fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship. For a team with Ferrari’s resources and ambitions, this result represents a significant setback. It also marked the first time in five years that the Italian outfit finished outside the top three in the team standings.
The outcome inevitably drew comparisons with Ferrari’s troubled 2020 campaign, when the team struggled badly during Sebastian Vettel’s final season in red. However, many observers believe the causes of Ferrari’s latest downturn go far beyond a simple performance dip or regulation mismatch. According to former Formula 1 driver, Ferrari insider and respected analyst Marc Surer, the roots of the crisis lie in a critical personnel change that has had long-term consequences.
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Beyond the disappointment of 2025, there are growing concerns inside the paddock that Ferrari’s problems may extend well into the next regulation cycle. With sweeping technical changes coming in 2026, expectations around the Scuderia’s future competitiveness are naturally high—particularly given the presence of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, two drivers considered among the very best in Formula 1.
However, some insiders quietly question whether Ferrari is structurally prepared to capitalise on the regulation reset. History has shown that fresh rules tend to reward teams with clear technical leadership, continuity, and a unified, long-term vision. Without those elements, even the most talented driver pairing can find itself fighting limitations beyond its control.
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The concern is not centred on facilities, budget, or ambition—areas where Ferrari remains among the sport’s elite. Instead, it relates to the absence of a specific guiding influence that had previously ensured coherence between concept, development, and execution. Regulation changes magnify small weaknesses, and when a team lacks a decisive technical reference point, those weaknesses can become defining traits rather than temporary setbacks.
For Hamilton, who joined Ferrari in search of one final title challenge, and for Leclerc, who has already endured multiple rebuilding phases, the risk is obvious. If the foundations of the 2026 project are compromised, both drivers could face another season of unfulfilled potential—despite a clean-sheet opportunity that, on paper, should favour a team of Ferrari’s stature.
Only later in the season, as performance trends emerge, will it become clear whether Ferrari have successfully adapted—or whether the absence of one critical figure has left a void that even a regulation reset cannot easily fill.
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Marc Surer’s Assessment of Ferrari’s Stagnation:
Speaking in a YouTube interview with formel1.de, Surer admitted he was not surprised by Ferrari’s lack of progress in 2025. In his view, the team’s stagnation had been signposted well in advance.
“A man has left Ferrari who has consistently built a superb car for the past few years,” Surer explained.
That man is Enrico Cardile. The long-time Ferrari engineer announced his departure from the team in 2024, before moving to Aston Martin. At the time, the move was viewed as a significant loss for Ferrari, and Surer believes its full impact only became apparent during the 2025 season.
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Ferrari’s Strong Foundations in the Ground-Effect Era:
Surer was keen to stress that Ferrari’s recent cars were not fundamentally flawed. Since the introduction of the ground-effect regulations in 2022, the Scuderia had regularly produced competitive machinery. While execution errors and strategic missteps often undermined results, the underlying technical platform was generally sound.
“From the very beginning of the ground-effect era, Ferrari has always had a superb car,” Surer said.
“They may not have executed it perfectly, but fundamentally the car was good.”
This assessment is supported by Ferrari’s 2024 campaign, in which the team fought McLaren for the Constructors’ Championship until the final race in Abu Dhabi, ultimately losing by just 14 points.
That level of competitiveness made the dramatic decline in 2025 all the more striking.
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A Growing Performance Gap in 2025
One year later, Ferrari found themselves far adrift of the leading teams. McLaren dominated the Constructors’ Championship with 833 points, while Ferrari managed only 398, less than half of their rivals’ total. The scale of the deficit highlighted more than just incremental underperformance.
Surer believes Cardile’s departure played a decisive role. Although the SF-25 was developed under Cardile’s leadership, his absence was increasingly felt once he left Maranello in the summer of 2024.
“Ferrari blocked him from working for six months after he resigned,” Surer noted. “They knew they were losing a gem.”
Without Cardile’s ongoing influence, Ferrari lost continuity in car development, and according to Surer, “the team was simply not the same as before.”
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Cardile’s Departure and Ferrari’s Uncertain Future:
Cardile was widely regarded as an insider at Ferrari—an engineer deeply embedded in the culture and technical processes of Maranello. Surer suggests that his decision to leave was driven less by dissatisfaction, and more by the desire for a new challenge. The opportunity presented by Aston Martin and team owner Lawrence Stroll proved too tempting to ignore.
Ferrari, for their part, have stated that development of the SF-25 was halted relatively early in the season so that resources could be redirected toward the 2026 car, which will be built under a new set of regulations. Whether this strategic gamble will pay off remains an open question.
What is clear, however, is that Ferrari’s 2025 season has exposed how vulnerable even a historic powerhouse can be when key technical figures depart—and how difficult it is to replace their influence once they are gone.
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NEXT ARTICLE – Hamilton quits his battle to revolutionise Ferrari F1 team
For all the media briefing about how passionate Lewis Hamilton is over doing a Michael Schumacher and making Ferrari great again (MFGA) he farewell in Abu Dhabi was a disconsolate throwing in of the towel.
Lewis has repeatedly claimed this year he has been sending in documents for the perusal of the Scuderia senior management in an effort to wake the sleeping giant in Maranello. He spoke of “structural re-organisation” in the summer when asked about the contents of his ‘documents’ together with specific deficiencies in the SF-25
The ‘Hamilton files’ have not gone down well in certain corners of Ferrari’s HQ as engineers resent being told ‘this is the way we did it at Mercedes.’ Yet this is none of Lewis’ fault, its all part of Ferrari arrogance based on a once glorious past.
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On media day before the F1 seasons finale, Lewis again spoke of him taking a ‘hands on approach’ in terms of Ferrari reform and how he refused to accept his tenure with the Scuderia will go the same disappointing ways as Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
“It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that need to be. That’s ultimately why the team’s not had the success that I think it deserves.
“So I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top making the decisions. If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers.
“You’ve had Fernando, you’ve had Sebastian. All world champions. However, they didn’t win a World Champion[ship] with Ferrari. And I refuse for that to be the case with me, so I’m going the extra mile,” claimed the seven times champion…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
A senior writer at TJ13, C.J. Alderson serves as Senior Editor and newsroom coordinator, with a background in online sports reporting and motorsport magazine editing. Alderson’s professional training in media studies and experience managing content teams ensures TJ13 maintains consistency of voice and credibility. During race weekends, Alderson acts as desk lead, directing contributors and smoothing breaking stories for publication.
